The Remarkable Miss Adela Breton: Explorer extraordinaire of 19th century Mexico
In 1894, a man living near the famed ruins of Teotihuácan, 50 kilometers from Modern Mexico City, discovered a small, pre-Hispanic house whose walls were covered with beautifully colored murals. The place was called Teopancaxco or “La Casa de Barrios.” The paintings were the first of their kind found at Teotihuácan and visitors considered them spectacular. Watercolor painting of the mural at la Casa de Barrios, Teopancaxco. Weather and time eventually did their damage to the murals and today we would have little idea of how they once looked if it were not for an extraordinary Englishwoman named Adela Breton who had fallen in love with Mexico's ruins and who painstakingly reproduced these murals as watercolors. Mary Frech, author of Adela Breton, a Victorian Artist amid Mexico's Ruins, says, quoting James Langley: “Adela made the most comprehensive record of the murals at Teopancaxco. Her re-creation of the colours of the murals is unsurpassed compared with the few colour re...